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Hitcher's Guide to the Galaxy -how does the film compare?

Spiceymunkey

Spiceymunkey

New Member
Haven't seen the film yet but really loved the series.
I was just wondering whether I'm going to be bittery dissapointed or pleasantly suprised.
Can anyone think of any particular shockers that have come out over the years?
Stephen king's books are definate candidates.
 
I watched the film, and enjoyed it.

Some of the wacky touches from Douglas Adams' writing came across really well. However, the casting left a little to be desired.

And, basically, it's going to be wrong if it isn't exactly the way we imagined it in the privacy of our own mind, right? ;)

One of the outstanding parts of the film was when Slartibartfast took Arthur onto the factory floor of where the planets are created. That whole scene was just absolutely stunning and seemed perfect.
 
I just saw it yesterday and I really enjoyed it. To me, I thought there were more exciting parts in the movie than there were in the book (of course, I'm referring to only the first book out of the series).

I tried not to compare the two too much because in Adams' intro to the book, he said that the radio series, tv series, and book series are all different and contradictory of each other. So, I tried to just look at the movie as something else so that I could truly enjoy it.
 
I saw it and was not that impressed with it. I think the books are so much better. I think they Hollywood-fied it. For example, They stuck in an awkward romance that just didn't fit and didn't work. The best bits were the parts that had lines taken directly from the book.

Not to say it's a bad film. It's just another average Hollywood comedy.
 
Spiceymunkey said:
I was just wondering whether I'm going to be bittery dissapointed or pleasantly suprised.
Click to expand...

If you're anything like me - you'll be both!!

Loved some of the new touches - the opening credits really got it off to an excellent and amusing start - and thought the casting was actually pretty good (at least, I didn't spend the whole film thinking "you're not the real people!" to myself).

But the romantic element was overplayed ( :rolleyes: ) and I didn't like the role of the Vogons at all ( :mad: ).

All in all though - could have been a whole lot worse so I'd recommend you go check it out. :)
 
SillyWabbit said:
They stuck in an awkward romance that just didn't fit and didn't work. The best bits were the parts that had lines taken directly from the book.
Click to expand...
I totally agree.
 
I thought the film was pretty good actually, I enjoyed nearly all of it. Anyways, if you remember the books, Adams fit in his own romance that didnt really work :)

The best bit, was with the stupid flap things that kept hitting them in the face, okay so it was immature humour but it was funny!! :D

Hopefully on the back of this one they might get enough money to make a sequel ... seeing the Restaurant at the End of the Universe would be interesting!!

Phil
 
The main thing that I didn't like about the film was Marvin. To me, it felt like they got him totally wrong. Even though Alan Rickman (who I love) did the voice, the character just didn't seem right.

In the books, I always remember getting excited everytime Marvin came around, because to me he was the best character of them all. And I was disappointed in the later books when Marvin was phased out.

I wish they would have taken the whole romance thing out and spent more time on Marvin. They also cut off some of Adams' best rants. Like in the beginning of the book with the papers being hidden in the basement, in a locked filing cabinet, in a room with a sign on the door that said "beware of the leopard." I love that bit. But in the film, all we got was that it was in a "locked room." They did that a couple other times and it just felt like they left out a big part of what made the book so great.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the film at all, because I did. There were just some things that bugged me. But that's what happens when one of your favorite books gets made into a film. They can never capture what's in your head.
 
Zaphod's Anatomical Layout

I thought the movie was good, authough it lost the plot at points. I have one complaint about the movie- Zaphod Beeblebrox. In the books i'm pretty sure he had two heads and three arms at the same time if you know what I mean. (how is he meant to "bash his heads together" if only one flips up at a time) :). I suppose that it would have looked stupid in the movie if he had an extra head and arm on constant display :)
 
Have actually been to see it now and wasn't overly impressed. The movie didn't really flow very well, Is it me or did there seem to be lots of awkward pauses where nobody seemed to know what to say?
I really missed the bit where Marvin saves everybody by making the ship commit suicide by talking to it!
Must reread the book now!

Also, Marvin was far too round. Good voice though.
 
Two suns, yeah right

I have a second complaint: how come magrathea, a planet with TWO SUNS is a desolate FREEZING wasteland in the movie? :mad: that annoyed me. but a movie can never compare to a book
 
Erm ... you know Pluto is kinda cold dont you ;)

The relative temperature of a planet is entirely to do with how close the planet is to its sun/s .. not how many of them there are.

Anyways, thats besides the point, I enjoyed the movie :)

Phil
 
I liked it, but i think some of the jokes get lost when you see it as a movie. In many ways the best parts of the movie were the bits where the narrator read directly from the hitchhikers guide.

Marvins voice was good though. Is it the same guy that had marvins voice in the tv-series? It reminded me a lot of him.
 
Zolipara said:
Marvins voice was good though. Is it the same guy that had marvins voice in the tv-series? It reminded me a lot of him.
Click to expand...
No - Alan Rickman provided the voice for Marvin in the movie :)
 
I thought they did a great job bringing it to the big screen. It was different than the book, but like someone else here said, it was supposed to be. I do think it got a little weak in the end, and I would also have liked to see Marvin talk the ship into suicide!

I really liked the opening sequence and the song. :D
 
I thought it was a very average movie with poor acting. Decent amusing content was it's saving grace. I am glad I read the book(s) before I watched it as I might never have bothered otherwise.
 
It was some time ago I was thinking about how great it wold be, if someday someone would make the film about those books. It realy should be as a LOTR or Starwars, I would recommend one film for every book. There is so much more in books then in this film. I'm more dissapointed than happy with this one, but my wife loved it (but she never read the books).
 
I still haven't decided whether I will go see the movie or not. I loved the books and I was very excited about the movie coming out but when I saw the previews and heard everyone's opinions I got cold feet. I guess I should make up my mind quickly before it's out of the theaters.
 
mad face, mad face two

I watched movie on Sunday night. I couldn't say it was good, honestly and seriously. And the following was how i felt about the movie:

An unseen emptiness seemed to be expanding somewhere, biting, which made my legs drag and my steps out of the cinema weak. I thought, maybe this feeling was what they call, disappointment. A small voice kept reapting: it is not my Arthur Dent, it is not my Ford, it is not my depressed Robot, it is not my The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Then the voice fueled into a fire, which fueled into a bomb that found its own direction to the film factory...

I felt blessed even that I read the book before I saw the movie. And you know what, I am going to inflict myself to watch it again to see if I could find something good in it. :mad:

Oh, there was one thing that I did enjoy. It was the beauty of the earth appeared at the last few minutes, which filled me with admire for her.
 
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